James Cameron discusses the H.P. Lovecraft film he's making with Guillermo del Toro. One of our favorite Dollhouse stars is joining Torchwood. Gwyneth Paltrow reveals her role in Soderbergh's Contagion. Plus descriptions of the characters from the latest BSG prequel.

Contagion

Gwyneth Paltrow reveals her role in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming plague thriller. It turns out her character is the one responsible for unleashing the deadly virus. [Collider]

At The Mountains of Madness

James Cameron discussed the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation that he's making with Guillermo del Toro:

...If anybody can bring Lovecraft to the screen it's gonna be Del Toro. He's got a real vision for the film. It's very, very well-developed in his mind. You know, I'm just there to facilitate his vision. I don't have any strong sense of authorship; zero sense of authorship. I'm just there to try to get it made and help him do the movie that's in his head.

We're very, very actively pre-producing the film right now with Universal. The design work is phenomenal, both the three-dimensional and two-dimensional design work, the physical maquettes, the CG test scenes; the artwork is phenomenal. The fans certainly won't want for a visual feast with this film. But there's [still] a bunch of number-crunching and ‘How you gonna do it?' and ‘How you gonna make it?' [and] ‘Where you gonna do it?' All that stuff.

The adaptation of David Mitchell's genre-spanning novel, which weaves together several different narratives over thousands of years, will apparently have multiple directors. Natalie Portman revealed the Wachowskis and Run Lola Run director Tom Twyker are directing the film together. Portman will reportedly appear alongside Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellan, and James McAvoy, although Portman says her own role will probably be "nothing major." [The Playlist]

Cosmopolis

Forming perhaps the most unlikely trio in cinematic history, Robert Pattinson will reportedly play the lead in David Cronenberg's adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel, which is about a 28-year-old billionaire who goes on a Ulysses-style quest to get a haircut during Manhattan's worst traffic jam ever, in a somewhat futuristic metropolis. Previous reports had Colin Farrell in the lead, with Marion Cotillard and Paul Giamatti in the cast as well. Although Farrell is obviously out now, the other two may still be in the movie. [Deadline]

The Maze Runner

Twilight's Catherine Hardwicke is directing the adaptation of the young adult novel that follows a group of kids as they navigate a deadly maze to escape an alternate dimension, and now the project has picked up a screenwriter. Noah Oppenheim, who won industry acclaim for his spec script about Jackie Kennedy in the days following her husband's assassination, will reportedly write the screenplay for the film. [The LA Times]

GI Joe 2

Inside sources claim multiple directors have been approached to take on the GI Joe sequel, suggesting original director Stephen Sommers will not be involved. [LA Times]

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome

The new prequel series, set in the tenth year of the Cylon War, is looking to cast its three main characters in the pilot. There's William Adama, of course, who is in his early or mid 20s and is a cocky, fearless pilot in the Tom Cruise Top Gun mold. He hasn't yet gotten into the action yet, with his only experience being in simulations. His risky style puts him in conflict with the jaded Electronic Countermeasures Officer, Coker Fasjovik, who is in his late 20s to mid 30s. He and Adama are serving on a rundown Raptor ship known as The Weasel, and Fasjovik looks forward to getting home after just 45 days of action. Finally, there's the beautiful officer Beka, who Adama trusts completely but Fasjovik suspects (correctly) that she is not what she appears. Her treasonous intentions could spell disaster for their already dangerous and complicated mission. All this just comprises the first mission, which I assume is all in the pilot, so the other two characters may not return after the first episode. [TV Guide]

Fringe

An upcoming episode will take us back to 1985, to see the effects "over there" of Walter kidnapping Peter and bringing him into our universe. [TV Line]

The Walking Dead

While discussing AMC's schedule, Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston says he believes both his show and The Walking Dead will return in July 2011. [TV Overmind]

Chuck

Jeffster returns in the January 17 episode with a cover of Whitesnake's "Is This Love." Also, Lou Diamond Phillips will be the villain in the fifteenth episode, "Chuck vs. the Cat Squad." [TV Line]

True Blood

Season four will be a rough one for Jessica and Hoyt's relationship. [TV Line]

Torchwood: The New World

The Whedonverse and Whoniverse continue to crash into each other slowly, as Dichen Lachman, who played Sierra on Dollhouse, will reportedly appear in the first episode as a CIA agent. All My Children actress Alexa Havins will reportedly play series regular Esther Katsui, who has tremendous faith in humanity (yeah...that's gonna get shattered) and a massive crush on fellow series regular Rex Matheson, who is reportedly played by Mekhi Pfifer. [TV Line]

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The site of Torchwood's American operations will apparently be Bruce Willis's compound in Malibu. We assume this just means his house will be used as the exterior (and maybe interior) location and that it isn't actually his house in the show...although it would pretty much be the most awesome thing ever if a fictionalized Bruce Willis just wandered randomly through the Torchwood set, saying mildly inappropriate things to Jack and Gwen. [TV Line]

No Ordinary Family

Here's a promo for the next episode, "No Ordinary Brother": [SpoilerTV]

A scan of a TV Guide gives us our first look at Lost star Rebecca Mader, who plays a executive at Stephanie's lab who has some secrets of her own: [SpoilerTV]

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Here's a new promo photo for the show. I don't want to criticize anybody's Photoshop skills, but, um...I don't know how to finish that sentence: [KSiteTV]

The Cape

Creator David Lyons explains why the show can feel like a comic book:

We wanted to find a middle ground between something that wouldn't be so stylized that it took you out of it, but felt heightened, and with where we're getting to with the colors and lights, I think it feels like a good balance between reality and a heightened pulp world. We had to be very careful about how it would feel. In a comic, you accept certain things. People wear costumes, people wear masks, and in terms of how we dealt with it when we're actually showing it on screen, we needed to be careful, and just make sure that things were lit properly. We have some great DP's, and Simon West and Deran Sarafian did a wonderful job, I think, of trying to straddle reality and the comic book of it all.

He also talks a little about Summer Glau's mysterious but benevolent Orwell:

We will certainly see that she is a real mystery box. If anything, I would compare her to our Wolverine. She's a mercenary princess, and initially, the reporter willing to get out there, but I would put her much more in the category of an Alias [Sydney Bristow] type of character as we'll use her more and more, and also, we'll get much more into her past, and her history, and for her future… things will change in this show.

Finally, he gave some general teasers for what lies ahead this season:

Stay tuned for Vinnie Jones and David Lyons battling it out on top of a speeding train. We have a big two-parter we're in the middle of shooting right now that rolls out. Tonally, we're getting into really gothic, scary territory, which I love. I love that the show can swing back. The Mena Suvari episode where she plays Dice is almost tipping into sci-fi a little bit, but again, this is a non-supernatural show, but we sort of flirt and push the envelope in some ways.

A new villain named Pokerface is introduced in this episode. He is described as "a ghoulish-looking thug dressed in a suit whose face is frozen in an expression of glum murderousness." He doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in what Ark has done, considering that The Cape has been cleaning up the city his own way. He knows Scales, and there's a meeting of both of them with some of Palm City's seedier folks.

The ultra-meta episode in which Sam and Dean wake up in a strange world where they're actors named Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles will indeed incorporate the fact that Padalecki is married to former Supernatural actress Genevieve Cortese, with her making a guest appearance as herself. [TV Line]